


as if truly seeing you for the first time

by SaraJaye



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Awkwardness, Falling In Love, He Is All Grown Up, Indirect Kiss, M/M, Mentor/Protégé, Mutual Pining, Past breakups
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-09 17:11:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19480372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: In which Keith isn't a surly teenager anymore and Shiro has Feelings about it.





	as if truly seeing you for the first time

When he first met Keith, his romantic future seemed more or less set. He and Adam were practically married without actually being engaged, and Keith was just a lonely, surly teenager in need of a chance nobody would give him. He'd taken the kid under his wing, treated him like a little brother, helped him make something of himself.

Keith was seventeen, on the cusp of manhood, when Shiro left for Kerberos. That day Keith had hugged him so tightly, looked at him, leaned forward only to back away. _Never mind. Just...promise you won't forget me up there, okay? Stay safe._

Shiro hadn't realized the implications of what hadn't happened that day until he crashed back to Earth a year later. Unconscious on the examining table one minute, lying on a couch in a desert shack the next, only a moment alone with Keith before they found the Blue Lion and were sucked through the wormhole.

It only took that one moment to realize that Keith wasn't that surly boy anymore. He was sharper, more focused...still short, but definitely closer to a man than a boy. No, scratch that, he _was_ a man now. And for the first time since the breakup with Adam he was feeling something he hadn't let himself feel in over a year.

 _This is Keith,_ he reminded himself, _this is that surly, lonely brat you took under your wing, treated like a little brother. You shouldn't be looking at him this way, it's wrong._

But teenagers didn't stay teenagers forever, Shiro thought. It wasn't as if he expected to come home and find that same impatient seventeen-year-old, even if the mission had been a success Keith would still grow up while he was gone. And even with only one year gone by he _had._

Keith wasn't a kid anymore, plain and simple, and Shiro was developing feelings for him.

They were practically joined at the hip for most of the beginning, save for when Shiro helped Pidge free those prisoners. But Keith was always quick to find him after battles, stay near him during training sessions, ask if he was okay whenever things got too intense.

How could anyone _not_ fall for a guy like that?

"Sorry!" Keith's voice suddenly broke through his thoughts as he looked up from a cup of what passed for coffee on the Castle of Lions. He pushed the cup away, towards Shiro, running a hand nervously through his bangs. Shiro blinked, staring at the cup, then at Keith.

"For what?"

"I stole a sip of your coffee! I grabbed your cup by mistake, I'm really-"

"It's okay, Keith." Shiro smiled a little. "I can steal a sip of yours, then we'll be even," he said without thinking. Keith's cheeks turned bright red, and Shiro realized the implications of what he'd just said...and what Keith had _done._

Their gazes locked for a moment, Shiro tempted to lean in close to him, only for Keith to grab his own cup and sit up straight.

"No harm done!"

"Right."

Shiro watched Keith take a sip of his own drink, stifling a sigh. That pale skin, the quiet fire in those dark purple eyes, the way his soft dark hair fell in his face. Those cheekbones, those eyelashes, the shape of his nose.

The fact that he was about to sip from a cup Keith had just had his lips on.

 _Stars above help me,_ he thought. _I'm in deep._


End file.
